The boycott of Sealord products in New Zealand and Gorton Seafood
products in the United States has paid off.

Nissui, the Japanese company that owns both Sealord and Gorton also owns
50% of Kyodo Senpaku which owns and operates the Japanese whaling fleet.

According to a report by Andrew Darby in the Melbourne Age, Kyodo
Senpaku has announced that it will get rid of the ships, "in view of the
scientific and public-interest nature of the activities now carried out by
our company".

These are the six ships that Sea Shepherd chased and harassed in
December of 2005 and January of 2006.

Conservation groups led by Earth Island Institute stepped up a consumer
campaign against fishing companies owned by Nissui, which has been whaling
for 72 years. New Zealand-based international fisheries company Sealord,
half-owned by Nissui, came under attack, as did the United States company
Gorton's, which is fully owned by the Japanese company.

40,000 emails went to Sealord's chief executive, Doug McKay, alone.

In Argentina, a local seafood company cancelled contracts with Nissui
after cyber-activists downloaded stickers to put on its products on
supermarket shelves, and 21,000 emails went to the company headquarters.

Again according to the Melbourne Age, the shares will be transferred to
a series of public interest corporations. They include the Institute of
Cetacean Research, but the rest are as yet unidentified. "Present
shareholders will eventually be completely divested of their ownership,"
the statement said.

Nissui had also undertaken to stop processing and distributing whale
meat in Japan.
Although this decision will not shut down the Japanese fleet, there is no
doubt that it is a significant blow to the industry.

“Whaling is becoming a taboo industry and the taint of blood and suffering
associated with it, will pollute any product of any company associated
with the slaughter of whales.” Said Captain Paul Watson. “People around
the world have spoken with their power as consumers and it is a language
that corporations understand. Whaling has no place in the 21st Century and
civilized people everywhere are opposed to it.”

Nissui made the decision not because of concern for the whales but because
hundreds of thousands of people made Nissui aware of their concerns and
their refusal to support companies that support whaling.